The present disclosure is directed to a cleanser including a balance of components for providing consumers with an enhanced exfoliation experience that smoothes skin immediately and sustains the smooth feeling for an extended period of time. Additionally, the cleanser provides a simultaneous cleansing and warming effect to the consumer's skin. Particularly, in one embodiment, the cleanser includes a combination of a water soluble carrier, a warming agent, a water soluble silicone surfactant for cleansing, and an exfoliant.
Today's market includes many existing products and formulations that achieve improved skin appearance and feel by removing or exfoliating the upper layers of the epidermis, which typically contains dead skin cells. Removal of these skin cells can provide a more vital, youthful appearance to the skin while imparting a smooth, supple feel. Generally, cosmetic formulations achieve this smoothing effect by the use of physical and chemical exfoliating agents. Particularly, physical exfoliating agents include particulates that are either natural or synthetic in origin and work by abrading the skin and resurfacing the top layers. The overall use level, mean particle size, distribution, and general morphology of the particulates will determine the degree of exfoliating and feel during the exfoliation process. Alternatively, chemical exfoliating agents provide an exfoliating effect by breaking bonds within the skin to create a smooth feel. Generally, these conventional exfoliating agents can be irritating to the skin and the benefits achieved are short lived, as environmental stresses and biological processes increase skin roughness.
Other products may comprise warming agents, which warm by a positive heat of hydration as water is added to the product. Such warming products, however, typically require an anhydrous base in order to prevent premature release of heat from the warming agent. Such bases can be oily and have an unpleasant aesthetic feel.
Some of these warming products may further include surfactants for cleansing. Traditional surfactants, however, have inherent problems in anhydrous formulations. Because of the anhydrous nature of warming products, it is often necessary to include in the formulations surfactants which foam well, but which have a high irritation rate, since these surfactants are necessary to generate sufficient amounts of foam. While such surfactants foam effectively, they also carry a high likelihood of irritation to the consumer's skin. Additionally, these surfactants increase the likelihood of stripping essential oils form the consumer's skin, leaving the skin dry, tight, and unpleasant to the touch. Both the elevated irritation potential and undesirable skin feel inherent to these types of formulations are of particular concern for facial care products.
It would therefore be desirable to provide a polysensorial formulation that combines multiple benefits in a non-irritating, aesthetically pleasing cleanser and that provides both an immediate and sustained skin smoothing effect. Additionally, it would be advantageous if the cleanser could further provide cleansing and warming benefits to the skin. The present disclosure describes such a substantially anhydrous cleanser and includes: a water soluble carrier; an exfoliant; a warming agent; and a water soluble silicone surfactant.